Her lips pursed together, a crease forming on her forehead as she subconsciously glanced in the direction of the mausoleum's entrance, hoping to catch sight of his return. However, all that greeted her was a silent hall.
She closed her eyes, controlling her emotions, and temporarily putting them aside.
"Bedivere," she called out softly in the silence. "Did you see it too?"
One of the Knights standing in salute immediately reacted to the call: A man with long and tied-back blond coloured hair that wore silver plated armour that was a mismatch of leather and steel.
This man was named Bedivere, and the others standing from his left and right were Lancelot, Mordred, Gawain, Galahad, Tristan, and Agravain, the sub-bosses of the Holy City of Camelot in YGGDRASIL. Merlin himself had already left to another room, more interested in wooing the numerous other women he had seen within the mausoleum; their beauty too much for the fickle skirt chaser to resist, his latest target a lithe woman with long silk-like purple hair and wielding a barbed spear.
Arturia could only pretend that she didn't know her own Kingdom's Grand Wizard at that moment.
"See what, your majesty?" Bedivere replied puzzled, brows knitted together, believing himself to have had missed something substantial.
He wasn't the only one as Lancelot and the rest began to similarly think over the matter. As far as they were concerned, any issue their King would bring up had to have had some greater meaning.
Seeing the reaction of Bedivere and the rest of her Knights, Arturia decided to simple keep the observations she had made to herself for the time being.
"If you didn't see anything, then that's fine as well," she closed her eyes, before opening them again to see Agravain knelt before her followed by her other Knights.
Her brows shifted in surprise, but experience allowed her to maintain her neutral expression.
"I apologize on behalf of our negligence," Agravain spoke up after a moment.
He was a man with stern facial features and raven-black hair that framed his face down to his shoulders. Seeing the earnesty and loyalty in his gaze had never failed to reassure Arturia in her actions as a King.
"Rise, Agravain," Arturia said gently while placing a hand on Agravain's dark-tinted armour before motioning to everyone. "And the rest of you as well. There's no need to apologize for something that was too subtle to be noticed."
In fact, Arturia was convinced that she had been the only one to see her master's inner turmoil due to her close proximity, and yet she was quickly proven wrong when a boisterous voice echoed out behind her.
"You're talking about the sadness in the praetor's gaze?" the voice said. "Umu, these eyes of mine astound even myself."
Arturia stiffened for a moment, and actually felt a sense of relief. If it was only herself that had seen Shirou's expression, then who could say that she hadn't just been seeing things in the heat of the moment? Although she was certain of what she had seen, she hadn't been able to bring up the matter with Shirou before he left.
Still, why were the expressions of her Knights currently so rigid? Better yet, why was a flush working itself onto their faces to the point where Agravain grunted before shifting his gaze away?
Mordred herself was already openly laughing.
The thing about YGGDRASIL and the numerous NPCs Shirou had created in it, was that most of the NPCs rarely came into contact with each other. This was a result of the NPCs being made in different realms. Midgard was separated from Asgard for example, and unless the NPCs decided to move between realms through teleportation, interaction was impossible. The most the NPCs understood about each other was the general feeling that they had been created by the same person.
Nonetheless, for many NPCs that were present when Shirou had first gathered everyone, it was the first time seeing each other. Naturally, Arturia and the rest were no exception to this, so when Artuia finally turned around to see who had spoken to her, she nearly drew Excalibur forth at an impulse.
"Y-You, y-you," They were the only words that were able to come out of her mouth at the moment, and they were too garbled to make out.
The only thing Arturia was seeing at present was red. Red and an appearance that was almost identical to her own wearing the most revealing military dress that she had ever seen. The hem of the dress itself was basically transparent at the front and allowed all to see the tight white leotard worn beneath.
Arturia was visibly trembling, the heat rising to her face erupting like hellfire when she noticed the alluring and plump crevice from a hole located at the back of the dress.
She could see the uppermost region of a butt.
Her butt.
Perhaps she wouldn't have had cared so much if it was someone else, but the thing was, it was like looking at an image of her own body revealed for all to see like some prostitute. To the blond hair, to the petite figure, and even facial expression, it was all the same; making it all the more mortifying when she noticed her Knights glancing discreetly at her. Her neutral expression shattered in an instant, replaced by a vexation and fury none of her Knights had ever seen on her before.
The owner of the voice was Nero Claudius, the Raid-Boss of the Warring Empires in Alfheim, one of the most sought-after Raid-Bosses in YGGDRASIL.
"Ohh," Nero paused when she arrived around six feet away from Arturia and the rest, her eyes widening in surprise before smiling in confidence. "As I thought," she said nodding her head. "My genes are meant only for greatness."
"Shut up," Arturia said sternly, unable to take it anymore. "How can you be so shameless, look at yourself!"
"Hmm?" Nero hummed before glancing down at her body, a realization setting in as she laughed.
"Shameless? This?" She asked before shaking her head and pulling on the hem of her dress. "No, you misunderstand, umu, I let them see."